I didn't realize this was in the sticky list, and I was swamped with search results.

I'm trying this one now, but I accidently disconnected the power cord to the surface, and the screen went to sleep, so I have to start over the download.. dammit..

I'll keep updates to the progress.
As of now, it would have been quicker to just reinstall all the windows updates and programs. sigh...

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Yes, the whole problem with backup is recovery Unless you can easily do a successful recovery the backup was a waste of time.

At work the "Backup" team takes daily backups but can never recover them. This deserves a good rant like the Sienfeld "reservation" rant. What's the point of a backup if you cant recover it. Anyone can make a backup its the recovering that's important. The Backup team should be eliminated and replaced with a "Recovery" team.

Yes, the whole problem with backup is recovery Unless you can easily do a successful recovery the backup was a waste of time.

At work the "Backup" team takes daily backups but can never recover them. This deserves a good rant like the Sienfeld "reservation" rant. What's the point of a backup if you cant recover it. The Backup team should be eliminated and replaced with a "Recovery" team.

Click to expand...

I know tell me about it
Why did they make this such a tedious task. Or maybe I'm just not computer savvy enough
I think apple have this done the better way, considering that you need to opt to 3rd party pay software to do it easier on a PC.

Download the recovery image from the Surface Support Site and follow their instructions....

As below:

Important
Creating a recovery drive will erase anything that is already stored on your USB drive. Make sure to transfer any important data from your USB drive to another storage device before using it to create a Surface USB recovery drive.Step 1:Insert your USB drive into the USB port of your Surface or PC.
For Surface RT and Surface 2, your USB drive should be at least 8 GB in size.
For Surface Pro models, your USB drive should be at least 16 GB.Step 2:From the desktop, open File Explorer.Step 3:Tap and hold or right-click on the USB drive and choose Format.Step 4:Select FAT32 as the file system and enter a Volume label to name the USB drive, such as RECOVERY, and then tap or click Start.Step 5:Tap or click OK to erase the contents of the USB drive.Step 6:Tap or click OK when the format is complete.Step 7:On your Surface or PC, unzip (or extract) the recovery image that you downloaded by double-clicking it to open it.Step 8:Next, drag the files from the compressed folder to the USB drive you formatted.